Peter Moore, a former Xbox executive, has revealed that Microsoft “encouraged the console wars” during the Xbox 360 era to drive competition between itself and Sony.
This was stated during the Front Office Podcast (spotted by IGN), with Moore clarifying that it was not done to create division, “but to challenge each other.”
Of course, Sony was also guilty of this at times, with the E3 2013 game sharing video from PlayStation being a jab at the initial plans for heavy DRM restrictions on the Xbox One.
Moore continued: “If Microsoft hadn’t of stuck the course after the Xbox, after the Red Rings of Death, gaming would be a poorer place for it, you wouldn’t have the competition you have today.”
The “Red Ring of Death” was a widespread hardware malfunction that plagued early iterations of the 360 console, causing many systems to display three red lights upon powering on as opposed to the usual three green lights that would form a ring. The cause of it came from fluctuations in temperature of the console breaking the components within, with systems going from cold to hot too frequently upon being turned on and off again.
It ended up being a huge thorn in the side of both players and Microsoft, with many having to send their consoles back to the manufacturer for repair, take them to hardware stores to be fixed, or having to buy a new system outright. It was later revealed that in total this ended up costing Microsoft a hefty $1.15billion (£950million), with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer having to provide funds himself.
As time’s gone on, console warring has been downplayed by Microsoft and Sony, with head of Xbox Phil Spencer recently going as far as to state that the game he wants to play most right now is the upcoming PlayStation exclusive God Of War: Ragnarok.
In other news, musician Post Malone has challenged a fan to an £82,000 match of card game Magic: The Gathering.